This invention relates to garden and lawn sprinkler systems, and more particularly to an improved underground sprinkler system having pop-up nozzles.
Underground sprinkler systems have long been utilized to provide irrigation water to lawns, gardens and shrubbery. The primary advantage of such sprinkler systems is their lack of visibility when the system is not operating since the pipes interconnecting the sprinkler nozzles are concealed underground and the sprinkler nozzles themselves are generally positioned flush with the surface of the ground. The nozzles utilized with underground sprinkler systems generally rise above the surface of the ground when the sprinkler is operating and return to their flush position when water flow is terminated.
Conventional underground sprinkler systems generally exhibit a number of problems. The sprinkler heads are usually fabricated from a large number of parts which must be assembled thereby making the nozzles somewhat expensive since the manufacturing and assembling costs are quite high. The large number of parts make the sprinkler heads susceptible to breakdown increasing the amount of maintenance required for underground sprinkler systems. Most underground sprinkler systems are difficult to partially disassemble when repairing a malfunctioning sprinkler head. Another serious disadvantage of underground sprinkler systems, which is compounded by the first, is that underground sprinklers tend to become clogged from grit, sand, debris, insects and insect eggs. Still another drawback to conventional underground sprinkler systems, is the large amounts of water such systems tend to use.